"Well here we are in sunny, southern California and I just love the clean streets, the wide roads and well-behaved drivers. Then there are the wholefood stores like; Mother's Market, Trader Joe’s, Wild Oats and Wholefood Market. I don’t think people here appreciate just how easy it is to be healthy here," says Mary-Ann Shearer. 

 

Mind you, it is equally easy to eat junk food, as even these wholefood stores carry many products that still contain refined and processed ingredients like sugar and white flour, so you still have to read the labels.

As I sit here writing, I am eating 'Raweos', that is raw Oreos made from cashews, almonds, coconut, raw honey, carob and cinnamon.

One of the things I have noticed on my travels is that the larger the country the less likely there is interference in the health industry from large food companies and the pharmaceutical industry.

This may be news to people in the US and the UK, but when a country can support the health industry, without input from big business, it is far more likely to have an independent approach and less likely to be influenced by what it promotes.

Take the Heart Foundation in the US and the UK. I can find no information that openly promotes trans fatty acids on their websites. In fact quite the opposite; trans fatty acids are big news and both websites tell us to avoid them as much as possible. In a small country like South Africa however, the Heart Foundation appears to ignore the issue of trans fats and instead promotes foods containing them such as red meat, dairy produce and margarine. It is not surprising to see that some of the major sponsors of the Heart Foundation in that country are in fact a margarine company, a large steak house chain and one of the biggest suppliers of dairy products.

It is sad that an organization that has the potential to do so much good, is in fact openly promoting foods that in other countries are shown to be detrimental to our health.

So this month I am including some information from independent sources (those that have nothing to gain from the food industry) that will help you understand the importance of removing trans fatty acids from your diet, what they are and where they are found...

We're used to hearing about saturated and unsaturated fatty acids. Saturated fatty acids, which come from animal fats (meat, lard, dairy products) as well as heated tropical oils such as coconut and palm oils, raise the levels of LDL cholesterol. Unsaturated fats, which come from vegetable oils , if unprocessed and unheated do not increase cholesterol levels and may reduce them.

As saturated fatty acids were found to be bad for you a couple decades ago, the food industry wanted to switch to using unsaturated fatty acids. Unfortunately, unsaturated fatty acids become rancid relatively quickly. To combat the instability of unsaturated fatty acids, manufacturers began to 'hydrogenate' them, a process that makes them more stable. The result was a more solid and longer lasting form of vegetable oil, called 'partially hydrogenated' oil.

Unfortunately, when unsaturated vegetable fats are subjected to the process of hydrogenation, a new type of fatty acid is formed. This new type of fatty acid is called trans fatty acid. So when manufacturers began substituting partially hydrogenated vegetable oils for saturated fats in processed foods, they began adding, for the first time, relatively large amounts of trans fatty acids to the typical diet.

Trans fatty acids turn out to increase total cholesterol levels and LDL cholesterol levels and to reduce HDL cholesterol levels. In other words, trans fatty acids are detrimental to cardiac health.

Both saturated fats from animal sources and heated from plant sources and trans fatty acids are bad for you. Saturated fats are almost always found in foods that also contain cholesterol, so saturated fats offer a 'double whammy' punch to heart health. On the other hand, trans fatty acids not only increase LDL cholesterol, they also decrease HDL cholesterol. So while nobody can say yet definitively which is worse, it does appear that both are bad. 

Butter is still an unprocessed, more natural form of fat compared to margarine and I would use butter any day - margarine, I would rather starve than eat.

Fortunately, it is relatively easy to identify foods that contain relatively large amounts of trans fatty acids: margarines (the more solid the margarine, the more the trans fatty acids; stick margarines contain the most, tub margarines contain less and semi-liquid margarines contain the least;) high-fat baked goods (especially doughnuts, cookies and cakes) and any product for which the label says 'partially hydrogenated vegetable oils' which, it sadly appears, includes virtually all processed foods.

Some research indicates that intense heating of fats also forms trans fatty acids, so even in a liquid form such as in salad dressings and sauces you could still be exposed to them.

Unsaturated, unheated, vegetable oils; from olive, flax, corn, safflower and sunflower (as long as they have not been subjected to the process of hydrogenation and/or heating) are heart healthy. These oils contain monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fatty acids that can reduce total cholesterol and increase HDL cholesterol levels. 

These oils also contain the essential fatty acids - specific fatty acids (Omega 3 and 6) necessary for life but which the body cannot make itself.

There are three basic steps to reducing the amount of 'bad' fat in the diet and substituting 'good' fat. 

* Avoid the saturated fatty acids found in meat and dairy products, as well as the processed tropical oils (palm and coconut). 

* Avoid trans fatty acids by steering clear of commercially fried foods, high-fat baked goods and margarines. 

* Whenever possible substitute one of the natural unsaturated vegetable oils in recipes calling for margarine, butter, or lard.

Make sure you are eating at least of the following daily to get enough Omega 6 essential fats every day;

1 - 3 avocadoes
5 - 10 olives
¼ - ½ cup raw nuts or seeds
2 - 6 sweet corn on the cob
1 - 3 tbsp extra virgin olive or other vegetable oil

To get enough Omega 3 on a daily basis, take the following;

1 - 3 tbsp cold pressed organic flax oil (take a blend of oils that includes flax oil after 6 - 12 months of using flax only). In South Africa I recommend the Millbrook oils sales@millbrook.co.za and Aimega from Aim. I take BarleyLife daily with Aimega as the BarleyLife supplies me with all the nutrients needed to convert Omega 3 into the five derivatives needed for health and life including DHA and EPA.

These two derivatives are what we find in fish oil and the body requires all five derivatives. Fish oil is also heated to high temperatures and becomes carcinogenic and then extracted with chemical solvents, so they are not a good source of Omega 3 essential fats.

In the USA and UK there are a variety of oils, just check that they extract and bottle the oil correctly (cold pressed, nitrogen flushed, no light exposure or heat).